# Cohiba bands



## JimMarshall (Aug 15, 2015)

is the printing on an authentic Cohiba band raised? Also, what are the chances of having a band that is off slightly when it is attached? Received a Maduro 5 from my dad, not sure where he got it as he doesn't smoke them, I imagine from one of his work friends that shops in Canada...... Wish I would have taken photos before I came to work. Not sure if the lettering should be raised or not, but other than that, the band looks good.


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## elco69 (May 1, 2013)

JimMarshall said:


> is the printing on an authentic Cohiba band raised? Also, what are the chances of having a band that is off slightly when it is attached? Received a Maduro 5 from my dad, not sure where he got it as he doesn't smoke them, I imagine from one of his work friends that shops in Canada...... Wish I would have taken photos before I came to work. Not sure if the lettering should be raised or not, but other than that, the band looks good.


Yes, the lettering should be raised. The dots above the Cohiba logo should not be cut off in any way. From what I understand the band should not be slightly off, but I think that is just what another member has mentioned.

Unfortunately, with as many counterfeits going around, especially Cohibas and especially the Maduro 5, chance are they are knock offs. Post pics, but if it the consensus is that it is a knock off, I wouldn't even smoke it as you don't know what is in there. People have seen plastic, hair, etc


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## JimMarshall (Aug 15, 2015)

Okay, got some photos, give me some good news.


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## ForceofWill (Sep 6, 2008)

Fake


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## JimMarshall (Aug 15, 2015)

The band looks pretty good as far as print quality, dots like they should be, ink lines aren't off, it's just the band being crooked that is concerning me.


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## KaChong (Jan 1, 2012)

White dots look ok, but the COHIBA letters should be raised. I'm not liking how the gold foil imprint is crowding the "Habana, Cuba" statement. I don't see that kind of spacing error on any of my bands, maduro or otherwise. I am quite confident in the provenance of my cigars. I can't help but feel that the cigar seems underpacked in your picture of the end. As to the crooked band, is the band tight at both ends? If the band is conically wrapped because the cigar is rolled badly, that's a pretty bad sign. I'm not sure I'd put a crooked wrapper past legitimate rollers though. They wouldn't roll very uneven cigars though.


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## JimMarshall (Aug 15, 2015)

KaChong said:


> White dots look ok, but the COHIBA letters should be raised. I'm not liking how the gold foil imprint is crowding the "Habana, Cuba" statement. I don't see that kind of spacing error on any of my bands, maduro or otherwise. I am quite confident in the provenance of my cigars. I can't help but feel that the cigar seems underpacked in your picture of the end. As to the crooked band, is the band tight at both ends? If the band is conically wrapped because the cigar is rolled badly, that's a pretty bad sign. I'm not sure I'd put a crooked wrapper past legitimate rollers though. They wouldn't roll very uneven cigars though.


Having never had a cohiba before I was unsure of how raised the letters should be. Definitely enough to feel when running your finger over the band? And now that you say that, it does seem a bit loose. I didn't notice bits of stuff in the end like on photos of dome of the fakes I've seen


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## KaChong (Jan 1, 2012)

The letters are certainly embossed deeply enough to feel. In your first bunch of pics, it doesn't look like the band is that loose. The band shouldn't be super tight, often I find I can slip them off without having to peel them apart. Bands should be close, but not girdle the cigar.

Despite the band not appearing to be very loose, it's quite crooked which makes me think that the roll is not very cylindrical. That's not a great sign. All of the Cohiba's I've had have been perfectly rolled. Dead straight, cylindrical, and round. Lumpy, unintentionally conical, bent, obround are not flaws that get through Cohiba's quality control. I've seen cigars get bloated and a bit lumpy if they got really overhumidified, but the taper in the band tells me that the cigar was already conical when the band went on. 

I have to say, I had to take out the magnifier to look at my bands to compare with your pics. Typeface on the "Habana, Cuba" is quite good. The comma looks different, but the font is really close. Hard for me to tell with the "COHIBA" AND "MADURO 5" typeface because it's rolled around, but I'm not crazy about the raggedy edges in the gold foil. Besides not having an embossed "COHIBA" the edges of the gold foil are not very crisp. The gloss finish on the band looks right. I've seen several really badly printed Cohiba bands that look like they were embossed with a screwdriver and printed on a deskjet. No gloss, black that wasn't quite properly black. Wrong number of white dots etc. Your bands don't have most of those flaws, but there are enough things wrong that I would suspect the legitimacy of your Cohibas. 

Sorry man. Light one up still. If you like 'em, that's all that really matters. I've smoked a few comically bad Cohiba fakes that were actually enjoyable in their own right. I suspect that they were genuine Cuban farmies. Locally rolled cigars from tobacco farms that bear little resemblence in flavor profile to the Coro's they proclaimed to be, but still enjoyable tobacco.

I have piles of friends who have brought back fake Cohibas bought in Cuba. I doubt very much that they're made from Virginia tobacco because they were bought on the beach or some other daft place. Friends don't mean to pass off fakes to you. Usually they've been misled by whomever they bought them from.


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## elco69 (May 1, 2013)

Sorry bro, it is definitely fake. Here were the dead giveaways
-Gold Cohiba is not embossed
-Gold print is leaking on the edges of the lettering and on the horizontal stripes
-Habana and Cuba are cut off at the top, should be horizontally centered 
-band has a poor job of being wrapped, crooked 
-wrapper looks like crap

I wouldn't even try to smoke it. My buddy got some fakes and we cut it open, we found hair, scrap pieces of tobacco, dirt, dust, looked like it was floor sweepings. Other people have opened up fake ones and found plastic, pubes, even a whole cigarette.


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## Shemp75 (May 26, 2012)

Uber Fake


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## JimMarshall (Aug 15, 2015)

elco69 said:


> Sorry bro, it is definitely fake. Here were the dead giveaways
> -Gold Cohiba is not embossed
> -Gold print is leaking on the edges of the lettering and on the horizontal stripes
> -Habana and Cuba are cut off at the top, should be horizontally centered
> ...


Alas, the signs were all there, deep down I knew it, but I really wanted to try one, and as such, my heart was hopeful. I was too in love to acknowledge the flaws.


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## JDom58 (Jul 27, 2015)

JimMarshall said:


> Alas, the signs were all there, deep down I knew it, but I really wanted to try one, and as such, my heart was hopeful. I was too in love to acknowledge the flaws.


Man I know the feeling, I was given one at my local B&M by a generous gentleman who walked into the store with a box looking for a way to keep them fresh, he had 4 more boxes at home his relative had brought him back from Cuba. The good folks here quickly found all of it's flaws hwell:


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

JimMarshall said:


> Okay, got some photos, give me some good news.


Sorry the band is terrible the cigar looks worse.


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## Rick Hendeson (Apr 8, 2014)

I understand "Cuba being Cuba" but that band looks atrocious


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBlhQ90EXOc


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## Champagne InHand (Sep 14, 2015)

Yep. Living near Canada and traveling the islands and Mexico/Central America you see the real thing and like said above the bands and cigars are impeccably done. They do have struck quality control. Seeing a lot of fakes happens near the border and in tourist supply type shops as opposed to the Duty Free store at those international airports where Cubans are just part of their normal tobacco business. That wrapper looks a little lumpy from the fill and the top end doesn't look very straight. The band is very off looks to be machine banded but one that doesn't have any QC after the fact. I would take a serious examination of any Cohibas at most places. 


What shall we have? An '82 Margaux! Is it any good? Good....?, It will make you believe in God!


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